Susana Aguilar with her pottery. The bowls by her feet are a distinctive early style of white-on-red ware. Photo by T. Harmon Parkhurst, Courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), 043608.

Susana Martinez Aguilar was the wife of Ignacio Aguilar (1872-1945). She began making pottery in the 1890's and later taught her daughter-in-law Rosalie Aguilar how to make pottery. She had been making more traditional utilitarian San Ildefonso pottery, as can be seen in the photograph to the above right. However, she began making black-on-black, polychrome and red-on-red style pottery in the 1920's. In 1925 she began to sign her pottery. Jonathan Batkin wrote of her pottery, "Susana was a skilled potter whose work has been unfairly overlooked by many. Her pots are among the most finely made of the 1920's and 1930's.". While she made the vessels and decorated some of them, most were also painted by her husband and also her son Joe Aguilar.

This is a very distinctive bowl by Susana Aguilar. The piece is from the 1920’s and it is fully polished and fired to a near gunmetal appearance. The style of her avanyu is very distinctive with the shape of the horn and the way she painted the mouth. The avanyu of her son, Joe Aguilar, is in very much the same style. The shape of the bowl is also very classic for her work, with thin walls and a very flat top after the curve of the shoulder. The bottom of the bowl is also fully polished. It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Susana”. The bowl is in good condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair. It has some scratches on the rim.